A 24-year-old woman mauled to death by lion at a wildlife park where she
worked was “absolutely fearless” but knew not to go into the animals’
enclosures, her father said.

Dianna Hanson had been volunteering for two months at Cat Haven near Fresno, California when she entered a cage and was killed by a 350-pound, four-year-old male African lion called Cous Cous.

Her father Paul Hanson, a Seattle-based lawyer, said: “She was in the cage.

“I don’t know why in the world she would ever be inside the lion’s cage. She told me only the owner was allowed to be in the cage and the workers were forbidden from ever going into it.”

Diana Hanson

Mr Hanson said his daughter had been doing her “dream job”, and had taken him on a tour of the 100-acre big cat sanctuary, showing him Cous Cous, who had been raised there after arriving as an eight-week-old cub.

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Miss Hanson had worked at several other big cat centres, including one in Kenya, and posted many pictures of herself with lions and tigers on the internet. Cous Cous was one of her favourites.

The private sanctuary, which opened in 1993, is closed to the public on Wednesdays, when the incident happened.

An investigation has been launched by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife into why she was in the cage.

According to the the US Department of Agriculture the park had a good safety record and was last inspected on Feb 4. It is run by Project Survival, a privately-funded education and conservation organisation.

Dale Anderson, the founder and executive director of Cat Haven, was crying as he read a statement, saying: “We take every precaution to ensure the safety of our staff, animals and guests. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family at this critical time.”

When local police arrived Miss Hanson was severely injured and still lying inside the enclosure with the lion nearby. It refused to be lured away so was shot and killed, but Miss Hanson died at the scene.

Actress Tippi Hedren, who founded the Shambala Preserve in California for seized or abandoned exotic pets, expressed dismay over the killing of the lion. She said: “It wasn’t the lion’s fault. It’s the human’s fault always.”